ALUMNI DIARY
Adnan Virk, RTA '00,
is the first Muslim anchor
at sports broadcasting
powerhouse ESPN.
PROFILES
A Canadian walks into a studio ...
RTA alum makes his mark at ESPN
IN 2010, a few months after Adnan
Virk, RTA '00, began work as an anchor
at ESPN, he went over some of his tape with
a talent coach: "The first thing - 'Man, you
really sound Canadian, huh?'"
Virk also enrolled in a course with interviewing guru John Sawatsky, and he had a
question to ask.
"Sorry, John," Virk said one day, "I was
just curious ..."
"Oh," the instructor responded. "How
very Canadian - to begin by saying 'sorry.'"
Virk smiled as he told the stories.
"I asked somebody recently: Do you think
I have a Canadian accent?" he remembered.
36
Ryerson University Magazine / Winter 2018
"And he goes, 'ah, it comes here and there,
but it's not as strong as when you were first
in the United States.'"
His parents are from Lahore, Pakistan,
and moved to Canada in 1972, before he
was born. The family bought a convenience
store outside Kingston, Ont., and his mother
would run the day shift, before his father
covered the night shift, after wrapping up
his day job as a computer programmer with
the provincial government.
Virk moved to Toronto to study broadcasting at Ryerson University, and graduated into
a diverse career that led him to work across
the television spectrum. He worked as an
associate producer at TSN, then a co-host on
Omni Television, and as a host on an upstart
Canadian sports network called The Score.
When he joined the U.S. sports broadcasting powerhouse ESPN, it was more
than a turn in his career path. He became
the first Muslim hired as an anchor. Virk
became a trailblazer.
"I don't know about that," he said with a
smile. "I don't think kids are flooding the
mosque, and running to Ryerson RTA: 'I'm
going to be like Adnan Virk one day.'"
He chuckled.
"But I mean, hey," he said, "if that changes
anything, it's a good thing."
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE FARAONI / ESPN IMAGES
BY SEAN FITZ-GERALD, JOURNALISM '00

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